Methods for incremental application deployment

ABSTRACT

Incremental application deployment allows any files under development for an application to be modified directly in place, such as on a server disk. Application and module configuration information can be collected from a user as they build their application. Each time a developer modifies the configuration of the application, changes can be immediately deployed to the server in the background, including appropriate modifications to the deployment descriptors. Once modifications are completed, the application can have already been deployed to the server.

CLAIM TO PRIORITY

The present application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR INCREMENTAL APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT”, Application No. 60/450,075, filed on Feb. 25, 2003, which application is incorporated herein by reference.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the deployment of applications and application components.

BACKGROUND

With software companies competing to beat one another to market with the “latest and greatest” software products and technologies, the need for reduced development cycle times is very high. Developers usually perform numerous iterations of code development, modification, deployment and testing of a design before the product can be shipped. It is often useful for the software developer to view and test the results of each incremental software change as it is completed before proceeding to the next change. However, in many software development environments, the process of rebuilding, redeploying and testing complex software projects can be tedious and time consuming. This is especially true when building large web applications that must be packaged and deployed to a server before they can be tested. For example consider the Java 2 Enterprise Edition application model depicted in FIG. 1. When a large number of iterations is required, the accumulated build and deploy time becomes significant. The resulting delays are undesirable in a market where short development times are necessary in order to remain competitive.

Deploying complex software applications involves more than just placing the files on the server. Each component and application must be configured to e.g. allocate appropriate server resources and specify security requirements. To satisfy these requirements, enterprise application servers require the creation of several deployment descriptors. These descriptors are specially formatted files that describe each of the components being deployed, their relationships, their required resources and other characteristics such as security requirements. An example of one of these deployment descriptors is shown below.

<Domain Name=“workshop”>  <SNMPAgent Name=“workshop”/>  <ApplicationManager Name=“workshop”/>  <JTA Name=“workshop” TimeoutSeconds=“500”/>  <Log FileName=“./wl-domain.log” Name=“workshop”/>  <Server   AcceptBacklog=“50”   AdministrationPort=“1”   ClusterWeight=“1”    ConsoleInputEnabled=“false” DGCIdlePeriodsUntilTimeout=“2”    DefaultProtocol=“t3” DefaultSecureProtocol=“t3s”    HttpdEnabled=“true” ListenPort=“7001” Name=“cgServer”    NativeIOEnabled=“true” ServerVersion=“7.0.0.0”    SocketReaderTimeoutMaxMillis=“10”    ReliableDeliveryPolicy=“RMDefaultPolicy”    TransactionLogFilePrefix=“./logs/”    TunnelingClientPingSecs=“45” TunnelingClientTimeoutSecs=“40”>    <COM Name=“cgServer”/>    <ExecuteQueue Name=“default” ThreadCount=“15”/>    <JTAMigratableTarget Cluster=“”      Name=“cgServer”      UserPreferredServer=“cgServer”/>    <KernelDebug Name=“cgServer”/>    <KernelDebug Name=“workshop”/>    <SSL Enabled=“true” IdentityAndTrustLocations=“KeyStores”     ListenPort=“7002” Name=“cgServer”/>    <ServerDebug Name=“cgServer”/>    <ServerStart Name=“cgServer”/>    <WebServer      DefaultWebApp=“default”      LogFileName=“./logs/access.log” LoggingEnabled=“true”      Name=“cgServer”/>  </Server>  <JMSFileStore Directory=“rmfilestore” Name=“FileStore”/>  <WSReliableDeliveryPolicy Name=“RMDefaultPolicy” Store=“FileStore”    DefaultRetryCount=“10” DefaultTimeToLive=“60000”/>  <JDBCConnectionPool CapacityIncrement=“1”    DriverName=“com.pointbase.jdbc.jdbcUniversalDriver”    InitialCapacity=“5” MaxCapacity=“20” Name=“cgPool”    Properties=“user=cajun;password=abc”    RefreshMinutes=“0” ShrinkPeriodMinutes=“15”    ShrinkingEnabled=“true”    Targets=“cgServer” TestConnectionsOnRelease=“false”    SupportsLocalTransaction=“true”    TestConnectionsOnReserve=“false”    URL=“jdbc:pointbase server://localhost:9093/cajun”/>  <JDBCTxDataSource    Name=“cgDataSource”    JNDIName=“cgDataSource”    PoolName=“cgPool”    EnableTwoPhaseCommit=“true”    Targets=“cgServer”/>  <Application Deployed=“true” Name=“JWSQueueTransport”        Path=“c:/bea2/weblogic81/server/lib/”        TwoPhase=“false”>    <EJBComponent Name=“QueueTransportEJB” Targets=“cgServer”           URI=“QueueTransportEJB.jar”/>  </Application>  <JMSJDBCStore    ConnectionPool=“cgPool” Name=“cgJMSStore”    PrefixName= “cajun” />  <JMSConnectionFactory JNDIName=“weblogic.jws.jms.QueueConnectionFactory”    Name=“cgQueue” Targets=“cgServer” UserTransactionsEnabled=“true”    Notes=“User transactions must be enabled to ensure transaction coordination for persistence and asynchronous operations”/>  <JDBCTxDataSource    Name=“cgSampleDataSource”    JNDIName=“cgSampleDataSource”    PoolName=“cgPool”    EnableTwoPhaseCommit=“true”    Targets=“cgServer”/>  <Application Deployed=“true” Name=“certificate” Path=“./” TwoPhase =“false”>    <WebAppComponent Name=“certificate” Targets=“cgServer”                 URI=“certificate.war”/>    </Application>    <Application Deployed=“true” Name=“default”          Path=“./wlw_apps/DefaultWebAppEar”>    <WebAppComponent Name=“default” ServletReloadCheckSecs=“0”              Targets=“cgServer” URI=“DefaultWebApp”/>  </Application>  <Application Name=“samples” Path=“./wlw_apps/samplesEar”    StagingMode=“nostage” TwoPhase=“true”>    <WebAppComponent Name=“BusinessControls” Targets=“cgServer”              URI=“BusinessControls”/>    <WebAppComponent Name=“samples” Targets=“cgServer” URI=“samples”/>  </Application>  <JMSServer Name=“cgJMSServer” Store=“cgJMSStore”        Targets=“cgServer”>    <JMSQueue JNDIName=“credit.response”          Name=“credit.response”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>    <JMSQueue JNDIName=“jms.SimpleJmsQ”          Name=“jms.SimpleJmsQ”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>    <JMSQueue JNDIName=“jms.CustomJmsCtlQ”          Name=“jms.CustomJmsCtlQ”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>    <JMSQueue JNDIName=“tutorial.credit.request”          Name=“tutorial.credit.request”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>    <JMSQueue JNDIName=“credit.request”          Name=“credit.request”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>    <JMSQueue JNDIName=“jws.queue”          Name=“cgJWSQueue”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>    <JMSTopic JNDIName=“jms.AccountUpdate”          Name=“jms.AccountUpdate”          RedeliveryLimit=“2” StoreEnabled=“default”/>  </JMSServer> </Domain>

Developing these deployment descriptors manually is tedious and time consuming. In addition, each time the deployment configuration changes, the deployment descriptors must change to match. This process can complicate development tasks and lengthen development cycles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the present invention can provide for, and/or utilize, incremental application deployment. Using incremental application deployment all the files under development can be modified directly in place on the server's disk. Application and module configuration information can be collected from the user as they build their application, e.g. using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Each time the developer modifies the configuration of the application, changes can be immediately deployed to the server in the background, including appropriate modifications to the deployment descriptors. If the server is not running when the developer modifies the configuration of the application, the changes cannot be immediately deployed. Instead, a synchronization procedure can be initiated each time the server starts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a Java 2 Enterprise Edition Application Model in accordance with the prior art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the present invention can provide for, and/or utilize, incremental application deployment. Using incremental application deployment, all the files under development can be modified directly in place on the server's disk. Application and module configuration information can be collected from the user as they build their application, e.g. using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Each time the developer modifies the configuration of the application, changes can be immediately deployed to the server in the background, including appropriate modifications to the deployment descriptors. Therefore, when it comes time to test the application, the application can have already been deployed to the server.

In one embodiment o the present invention, if the server is not running when the developer modifies the configuration of the application, the changes cannot be immediately deployed. Instead, a synchronization procedure can be initiated each time the server starts. The server synchronization process can be careful not to remove or otherwise modify application specific configuration settings that may have been added manually by the developer while the server was down.

Incremental application deployment and server deployment synchronization effectly eliminate the need for a separate deployment step in the development cycle. This shortens development cycles, decreasing overall development time and time to market.

In addition, it allows developers to see the results of their software changes almost immediately. Thus, modifications can be tested more frequently allowing developers to rapidly iterate on and improve their designs. Incorrect assumptions and costly mistakes can be caught early in the process, instead of waiting for the next convenient time for a deployment (e.g., a coffee break).

Incremental application deployment and server deployment synchronization also simplify the task of the developer by eliminating the need for highly specialized knowledge about deployment descriptors. This reduces the time and cost of training new developers and reduces the skill level required to build complex web applications thereby increasing the population of developers that can be productive on a project right away.

Initiating Incremental Deployment

The incremental deployment process may be initiated any time the host environment (e.g., IDE) detects a change in application configuration. If the server where the application is to be deployed is running, the entire process may run to conclusion, deploying new modules, removing old modules and applying required changes to other modules. The result is a deployed application that is ready to run.

If however, the server is not running, the process may only partially complete, staging the rest of the process for when the server restarts. Each time the server restarts, it sends a notification and if necessary the incremental deployment process starts again and runs to completion.

An incremental deployment process in accordance with one embodiment includes the following steps.

-   -   1. Construct a deployable modules list in an application. E.g.,         for J2EE applications, this includes Web Applications and         Enterprise JavaBeans, wherein the deployable module list can         contain at least one deployable module.     -   2. Examine at least one deployment descriptor for the         application to determine if the at least one deployment         descriptor contains an entry for each of the at least one         deployable module.     -   3. If step (2) identified deployable modules without         corresponding entries in the application's deployment         descriptors, perform the following steps:         -   a. Construct a list of modules to deploy containing each             deployable module that was not found in the deployment             descriptors in step (2).         -   b. Add each module in the modules to deploy list to the             application's deployment descriptors.     -   4. Examine the application's deployment descriptors to determine         if they contain entries that are not in the list of deployable         modules     -   5. If step (4) identified deployment descriptor entires not in         deployable modules, perform the following steps:         -   a. Remove each deployment descriptor entry identified in             step (4) that is not in the list of deployable modules.         -   b. Set ModulesRemoved=true         -   c. If the deployment descriptors no longer contain any             modules,             -   i. set NoModulesLeft=true     -   6. For each module in the list of deployable modules, do the         following:         -   a. Construct a list of relevant attributes (e.g., security             roles) for the current module e.g. from settings in the IDE         -   b. If any of the attributes identified in (6a) are not             included in the corresponding deployment descriptor entry             for the current module, add them to the deployment             descriptor entry and set AttributesModified=true         -   c. If any of the attributes identified in (6a) are included             in the corresponding deployment descriptor entry for the             current module, but have a different value, change the value             of the deployment descriptor entry to match that of the             associated deployable module's value and set             AttributesModified=true.     -   7. For each module entry in the deployment descriptors, do the         following:         -   a. Construct a list of attributes (e.g., security roles)             associated with the current module entry in the deployment             descriptors         -   b. If any of the attributes identified in (7a) are not             included in the associated deployable module, remove them             from the deployment descriptor and set             AttributesModified=true     -   8. If the server is not running         -   a. If NoModulesLeft, delete the deployment descriptors     -   9. Otherwise if NoModulesLeft, remove the application from the         server and delete the deployment descriptors.     -   10. Otherwise if ModulesRemoved, remove the application from the         server and redeploy it using the modified deployment         descriptors.     -   11. Otherwise if AttributesModified, refresh the application         configuration on the server by rereading and applying the         modified deployment descriptors.     -   12. Otherwise if the list of deployable modules is empty, do         nothing     -   13. Otherwise, if the application is not deployed on the server,         deploy it using the modified deployment descriptors.     -   14. Otherwise if the application is deployed, but not running,         remove it from the server and redeploy it using the modified         deployment descriptors.     -   15. Otherwise, do the following:         -   a. Obtain the list of modules currently deployed on the             server and remove each one from the list of modules to             deploy         -   b. Deploy each module in the list of modules to deploy             individually             It can be noted that deployment descriptors may contain             application configuration data added manually e.g. by an             administrator. It can be important that these additions are             preserved, even if the additions are not understood by the             process. Therefore, this process may only modify portions of             the deployment descriptors it understands. Other portions             are preserved.             Example Deployment Descriptors

Examplary deployment descriptors that might be automatically created and updated by the iterative deployment process are shown below. These examples are taken from a J2EE environment and include application.xml and weblogic-application.xml. For example, the code below shows an example for application.xml.

 <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?>  <!DOCTYPE application PUBLIC    ‘-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD J2EE Application 1.3//EN’    ‘http://java.sun.com/dtd/application_1_3.dtd’>  <application>   <display-name>Medical Records Patient Application   </display-name>   <description>Medical Records Patient Application   </description>   <module>    <web>     <web-uri>adminWebApp</web-uri>     <context-root>admin</context-root>    </web>   </module>   <module>    <web>     <web-uri>mainWebApp</web-uri>     <context-root>/</context-root>    </web>   </module>   <module>    <web>     <web-uri>patientWebApp</web-uri>     <context-root>patient</context-root>    </web>   </module>   <module>    <ejb>entityEjbs</ejb>   </module>   <module>    <ejb>mailEjb</ejb>   </module>   <module>    <ejb>registrationEjb</ejb>   </module>   <module>    <ejb>sessionEjbs</ejb>   </module>   <module>    <ejb>webServicesEjb</ejb>   </module>   <module>    <web>     <web-uri>ws_medrec</web-uri>     <context-root>ws_medrec</context-root>    </web>   </module> </application>

The code below shows and example for application.xml.

<!DOCTYPE application PUBLIC ‘http://www.foo.com/servers/foo   /dtd/foo- application_2_0.dtd’>  <application>   <classloader-structure>    <classloader-structure>     <module-ref>      <module-uri>SamplesApp</module-uri>     </module-ref>    </classloader-structure>    <classloader-structure>     <module-ref>      <module-uri>WebApp</module-uri>     </module-ref>    </classloader-structure>    <classloader-structure>     <module-ref>      <module-uri>WebServices</module-uri>     </module-ref>    </classloader-structure>   </classloader-structure>  </ application>

The foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications that are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalence. 

1. A method for incrementally deploying an enterprise application component on a server, comprising: modifying the enterprise application component, wherein a software developer modifies the enterprise application component using an integrated development environment; automatically modifying a deployment descriptor that describes configuration information for the enterprise application component, wherein the integrated development environment concurrently modifies the deployment descriptor based on the modifications made to the enterprise application component by the software developer; and immediately deploying the modified enterprise application component and the modified deployment descriptor onto the server; wherein one or more enterprise application components are part of an enterprise application that must be configured to allocate appropriate server resources and specify security requirements; wherein the deployed enterprise application component and the deployed deployment descriptor being modified can be modified directly in place on the server's disk; wherein if the server is not running when the software developer modifies the enterprise application component, a synchronization process is initiated when the server starts to deploy the modified enterprise application component and the modified deployment descriptor to the server; wherein the synchronization process does not remove or modify other application specific configuration settings associated with the enterprise application; and wherein the other application specific configuration settings were added manually by the software developer while the server was not running.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the deployment descriptor is a specially formatted file that describes each of the components being deployed, their relationships, their required resources, and other characteristics.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein each time the software developer modifies the configuration information of the enterprise application component, the changed enterprise application component and the modified deployment descriptor can be immediately deployed to the server in the background.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: constructing a list of deployable modules.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: comparing the list of deployable modules with the list of modules that were previously deployed upon the server, and updating the deployment descriptor with any changes.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: comparing attributes for each module in the list of deployable modules with the attributes of each module in the list of modules that were previously deployed upon the server, and updating the deployment descriptor with any changes.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the list of deployable modules includes Web Applications and Enterprise JavaBeans.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the attributes include security roles.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein the attributes are constructed from settings in an integrated development environment.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the enterprise application component is a Java Enterprise Edition application component.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein only portions of the deployment descriptors that are generated automatically can be modified while manual application configuration changes are preserved.
 12. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to incrementally deploy an enterprise application component on a server by: modifying the enterprise application component, wherein a software developer modifies the enterprise application component using an integrated development environment; automatically modifying a deployment descriptor that describes configuration information for the enterprise application component, wherein the integrated development environment concurrently modifies the deployment descriptor based on the modifications made to the enterprise application component by the software developer; and immediately deploying the modified enterprise application component and the modified deployment descriptor onto the server; wherein one or more enterprise application components are part of an enterprise application that must be configured to allocate appropriate server resources and specify security requirements; wherein the deployed enterprise application component and the deployed deployment descriptor being modified can be modified directly in place on the server's disk; wherein if the server is not running when the software developer modifies the enterprise application component, a synchronization process is initiated when the server starts to deploy the modified enterprise application component and the modified deployment descriptor to the server; wherein the synchronization process does not remove or modify other application specific configuration settings associated with the enterprise application; and wherein the other application specific configuration settings were added manually by the software developer while the server was not running.
 13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the deployment descriptor is a specially formatted file that describes each of the components being deployed, their relationships, their required resources, and other characteristics.
 14. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each time the software developer modifies the configuration information of the enterprise application component, the changed enterprise application component and the modified deployment descriptor can be immediately deployed to the server in the background.
 15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising: constructing a list of deployable modules.
 16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising: comparing the list of deployable modules with the list of modules that were previously deployed upon the server, and updating the deployment descriptor with any changes.
 17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising: comparing attributes for each module in the list of deployable modules with the attributes of each module in the list of modules that were previously deployed upon the server, and updating the deployment descriptor with any changes. 